Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Today, I want to tell you about one of the most famous executions in history.

December 2nd, 1859.

In what is now Charlestown, West Virginia, John Brown rode from his jail cell to the gallows on top of his own coffin.

It was hauled in a criminal's wagon drawn by two white horses.

Brown, the fierce abolitionists who had led an insurrection against slavery, was ready to die.

More than 1,000 troops lined the field to protect the gallows.

The governor was worried that rebels might rush in and try to rescue Brown.

The whole spectacle was close to the public and to journalists.

And Brown was defiant.

Before he left that day for the gallows, he had written a note in his cell.

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away,

but with blood.

Brown was a fervently religious man from Connecticut,

and he believed that slavery was the country's greatest sin.

He dedicated his life to eradicating it by any means necessary.

He and his sons fought pro-slavery fighters in Kansas, where violence surrounding

the issue was common. But he is most famous for leading at least 18 men in a raid of an

armory at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. His plan was to seize the weapons and give them to

enslaved black men so they could rebel.

He hoped to set off a rebellion and create a new free state.

But after a 36-hour standoff, most of his men had been either killed or captured by

...